A fire at a former fraternity house on the edge of the UNH campus brought firefighters from around the Seacoast to Main Street in Durham.

The fire was reported just before 2:30 a.m. Wednesday by a Durham police officer who heard a smoke detector and noticed light smoke coming from the building at 66 Main St.

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"It didn't progress to flames, but the smoke did get heavier, and as we decided to make entry, we did find areas of fire," said Chief Corey Landry.

Landry said all the utilities had been shut off to the former Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house, and there was no reason for the fire to have started on its own, so they are labeling the fire suspicious.

Landry said they had trouble getting into the building because the vacant structure had been securely boarded up since the chapter was disbanded in November after 11 students were arrested in a drug raid. Once inside, firefighters searched the structure, but no one was there.

The fire appears to have started between the first and second floors.

The chief said they went to a second alarm because the heat and humidity required them to quickly rotate crews. One firefighter suffered a back injury, but he remained at the scene.

The building is owned by a corporation comprised of local alumni. The president of the board, Frank Stifter, said the fire is a huge setback to plans to bring back the fraternity.

"It was our intention to reconstitute and rebuild," Stifter said.

In order to do that, the fraternity had to be back in the building by November, a deadline that now may be impossible to meet, he said.

"This event makes it rather difficult for us to maintain that zoning with the town, so that's one of the frustrations I'm looking at right now is how do we do that," he said.

Landry said in addition to the Durham Police and Fire Department, the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal's Office will also be called in to assist in the investigation.